Word: eventing
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...reverence normally shown by global soccer fans for their favorite teams. The Eleven-City Tour is a 125-mile skate over frozen lakes and canals in the northern Dutch province of Friesland. Since all the water has to be frozen at once, the race is hardly an annual event. In fact, conditions haven't permitted an Eleven City Tour since 1997; the Dutch fans clearly long for another one. On a piece of paper Doekle Terpstra, head of the speed skating governing body in Holland, draws a likeness of the medal that participants receive when they finish the race...
While other viewers of long-track speed skating may see monotony, the Dutch see rhythm, tension and athletic grace. "Boring?" asks Diederik Peereboom, a Dutch native who works as a consultant in Brussels, who was desperately looking for a ticket to the 5,000-meter event. "Well, we think your football is boring. They stand around for three hours for what, 15 minutes of action?" (Watch a video of Olympic athletes training...
...asks them if they're "re-dee?" The gun goes off, and they skate quietly around a 400-meter oval, swaying side-to-side, one hand on resting on their lower back. There's one lap, two laps; a little over a dozen laps during this 5,000-meter event, round and round for more than six minutes. They race against the times of the 26 other skaters in the competition, not their neighbor on the ice. As spectator sports go, long-track speed skating ranks somewhere between watching a stroll in the park and white noise. (Watch a video...
...also helps the Dutch spirits that their skaters bring home the hardware. Kramer won the 5,000-meter race on Saturday with a time of 6 min. 14.60 sec., setting a new Olympic record and nabbing his first gold. (American Chad Hedrick, the defending Olympic champion in this event, finished 11th; Shani Davis, the favorite in the middle-distance races, came in 12th.) Holland has now won 25 speed-skating golds in its Olympic history, tied for second with Norway behind the United States, which has 28, as the country with the most titles in the sport. Kramer is also...
...luge event is still scheduled to start late Saturday afternoon local time. After an investigation, Olympic officials concluded that athlete error, not a track deficiency, was ultimately responsible for the accident. Of course, that explanation won't assuage everyone. "This is a time for sorrow," Rogge said on Friday. "This is not a time to look for reasons...